Monthly Archives: March 2011

“I’m the commander — see, I don’t need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being president.” —George Bush

The Wisconsin ‘public union vs. private sector’ debacle is forcing me to lose all faith in politics. Finding a sensible resolution takes a backseat to deviously plotting plans to ensure future power and wealth.

Governor Walker and his cabinet have implemented a movement that would suppress not only the Wisconsin democrats, but the entire public workforce.

Walker’s biggest step is eliminating the collective bargaining rights of Wisconsin public workers (excluding fire/police). Without these rights, the unions will dissolve.

With no union activity, Wisconsin (now a swing state) will become a red state. Democrats rely heavily on unions for campaign finances, while republicans can always depend on large banks and private businesses. The move could potentially create some sort of campaign monopoly.

When criticism arose after Walker’s announcement, the governor was quick to inform the media that the elimination of bargaining rights was discussed specifically during his campaign.

“The simple matter is I campaigned on this all throughout the election,” said Walker during a February press conference. “Anybody who says they are shocked on this has been asleep for the past two years.”

The governor presented many specific proposals during his campaign, but never once touched on eliminating bargaining rights. When asked about this, Walker failed to find a single statement he made concerning the plan during his campaign. And during the infamous Koch brother prank call, he partially admitted his proposal was a shock.

“We talked about what we were going to do, how we were going to do it. We had already built plans up. This was kind of the last hurrah before we dropped the bomb,” Walker said.

The inefficient debt pool, which Walker blames on the public sector, has very little to do with the pensions (and nothing to do with bargaining rights) of public employees. The budget “crisis” could have been avoided all together if Walker didn’t implement $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups this January, which gave millions to private health savings accounts and “economic development funds”.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau released a memo detailing how Wisconsin would end the 2009-2011budget biennium with a budget surplus. The memo was released January 31st, before the proposal against unions was made. The Bureau determined that the state will end the year with a balance of $121.4 million.